I’ve been working on something else!

on May 28, 2022 at 4:48 pm

Okay, so during lockdown I got tinkering with Lego and tried some things with tensegrity which then got me thinking about doing some other projects.

One idea that came to me was recreating the old Kenner Star Wars Mini-Rigs from when I was a kid using Lego and after some thoughts and ideas I started working on my first vehicle, CAP-2!

Right, I need to pull back and give a wee history lesson first! You see, back in 82 (at least in the US but I’m guessing it came here to the UK soon after?) Kenner released a series of smaller sized Star Wars vehicles that were called Mini-Rigs. They were cheaper and so easier to buy and even though they weren’tshown in the movies – or if they had they were way, way, way in the back – it was Star Wars and therefore a must have!

The first Mini-Rig I got was CAP-2 and I loved it! I didn’t have Bossk so instead used 4-LOM (okay, at least I thought he was called 4-LOM but this was down to the figure being incorrectly named and should have been called Zuckuss) and it had all these moving parts and could stick to walls so yeah, IT WAS COOL!!!

Due to all this it was an easy first choice for my project and here it is!

I was surprised how quickly I managed to build this. The rear part was originally going to be used by angling flat plates but I found some sloped pieces that did the trick so I think that really help me get this put together!

Unfortunately I couldn’t get matching colours throughout which I really wanted to do but hopefully the balance of greys works. Also, the back claw has to be manually opened and closed (and sadly, no suction cup feet so it won’t stick to walls or the like!)

Here’s me trying to recreate the box art I showed earlier (given time I do want to try the front box art with Leia and Vader)

I really need to improve the light quality but it had gotten a bit late in the day now although I was determined to get this posted!

So what do you think? I have four more vehicles to show but I’d love to know what you think!

More soon! Bear hugs!

PS. I still call Zuckuss LOM-4. Hey, it was in my head for YEARS!!!!

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Wait, I… wait, no…

on May 24, 2022 at 6:36 pm

Okay, so I’m down to the final 7 pages of Fenton Hud and I’m realising that my idea to not plan a book is slightly flawed as I’m running out of space!

I did start to plan things out but three pages in found it wasn’t my thing and went back to having it play out as I go. I know, it’s reckless but then that’s how this story has run so far! So anyways, I had this idea of tying two scenes together by placing an advert selling rum for those moments you’re impatiently waiting for something to happen and need something to help time go by quicker.

With my fear of lacking pages I decided to cut it but still wanted to go ahead and design the advert so with a few changes this is what I came up with!

I might work a bit more on it and get it printed on a t-shirt – what do you think?

Oh! And I ended up going back and doing a FULL PAGE advert in the comic anyways (which I’ll show soon)!

It’ll work out. I’m sure of it…. Erm.

More soon! Bear hugs!

New advert! New page! New problems!

on May 2, 2022 at 8:34 am

So my initial plan of a splash page showing an evil HQ and then a full page advert all got squished in to one page. Why? Well, I felt doing a splash page and then a full page advert was really self-indulgent – especially when I was becoming aware that I was running out of pages to use for this issue!

So with that, I came up with this;

As always, I’m not finished with colouring/shading and there’s a few extra bits to add to the ‘splash’ panel but I really wanted to show you what I’ve been up to! And also to wang on about the process of coming up with the advert!

So as I was thinking about the left panel I realised it would be a good place to have an advert – especially as there must be people out there who design evil lairs, right?

And it went from there but naming the company was (and usually is) the hard part. I first went down the road of using a Thesaurus to find words for evil and the closest I got to was ‘Wicked Designs’ which has been used already. A lot!

I then thought I’d go with the designers name being used for the company and my initial idea was something with Helen in it – Helen/Hell, right? But I wasn’t impressed.

Then I weirdly thought of Stacy Roberts and I loved it! It’s a nice name, certainly not evil, and it got me thinking of a backstory. Like, how did Stacy end up designing homes and offices for evil geniuses with aspirations to take over the world? I’m not saying there’s a spin-off series in the works here but yeah, I just liked thinking about what could be going on there!

Feel free to post on Twitter with your ideas of who Stacy is! Me? I’m off to now finish the page and add some people to it!

More soon! Bear hugs!

A plan has hatched…

on April 21, 2022 at 5:25 pm

Okay, it had to happen… I mean, I like to plan. I like to have counter plans, even plans on plans! I just like being organised but with Fenton Hud I was enjoying putting a book together with zero idea of where it was going but this morning I found myself reflecting on Page 10 of issue #2 and a potential future plot point became a certainty.

Now I’m not saying what I’ve committed myself to but I just wanted to share the moment with you where this book got an overall arc. Gosh, I do like an arc…

From this ideas for issue #3 became more real, certainly a HUGE point in issue #4 and then something for… after that?

I still have a lot of pages to go that aren’t planned out in between the planned points but I have to say that despite enjoying the free-wheeling story writing style I had for this book there is something nice about having a few plot points to aim for.

Apologies for another self-indulgent post! Seriously! I just really wanted to share (plus I’ve been quiet for a few weeks so y’know…)

More soon! Bear hugs!

PS. This isn’t the finished page here – I’ve still sound effects, some shading and additional bits to add! But yeah, more or less done!

Perspective!

on April 9, 2022 at 7:26 am

Perspective can be hard!!! That being said, I always loved doing all the straight lines and perspective points as a kid when I drew big skyscrapers – although my page was filled with ingrained lines that couldn’t be erased and the buildings that looked more like kids building blocks! But hey, I enjoyed doing it!

Anyways, it can be difficult and even more so when drawing people! I caught myself in the early stages of laying out a page when I realised I was keeping the view point, the camera, at the same angle from panel to panel which didn’t make it very engaging.

I struggled getting a vision in my head of what viewpoint to go with – especially as there was two people in the scene! But then I hit upon an idea (okay, it was a memory of something I’d been taught before an age ago) and used action figures to work out not only the ideal position for both characters but also the best angle to tell the story!

And the best thing? I don’t need to worry about working out perspective points as I could just take a photo and draw over it! Which I did!

So I took a number of photos until I was happy with the shot and then uploaded it, digitally drew over, printed out and then drew over the copy… which I then scanned to the PC. Um, when I see it I’m now thinking I could have cut a few corners! Anyways, I’m well happy with the result! What do you think?

More soon! Bear hugs!

PS. If you’re interested I was using action figures from M.A.S.K. These guys were handy!